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Posts tagged ‘health’

Today I’m in Tampa with my daughter in the hospital. I wasn’t able to go anywhere else for food and had to get dinner in the cafeteria. The cafeteria appears to actually be a salad bar, drink fountains, dessert case and a few common restaurant food chain counters such as Saborro, Subway and the old traditional cafeteria of Morrison’s. I was surprised to find it like that and not just one big regular cafeteria with a kitchen where all the food is actually cooked from scratch like in some big hospitals I’ve been to. I decided on the Morrison’s fried chicken, because it looked the best of several not so good-looking choices. I got what looked like fresh steamed broccoli. I kinda wanted the mashed potatoes and decided to ask the server if they were made from real potatoes. It is unfortunate I have to even ask that question, but I find myself doing it all the time now. Not surprisingly, she shook her head and said “no, they’re instant”. I got the macaroni and cheese. It was not any good either and not even the Morrison’s mac and cheese I knew and loved from childhood though I know it’s bad for me food. The server then asked if I wanted cheese on my broccoli as she held the spoon over an orangish brown sauce. I asked if it was real cheese. She just looked at me and shook her head no. I said “no thanks” and took my styrofoam box plate. As I was leaving I spoke to a woman who was standing there, looking at the food considering getting it. I said “you’re old enough to remember the kind of food we grew up on that was real home-made food?”. She said “yes, but with everyone working all the time, no one has time to cook anymore”. I told her that this was true. And I told her about the mashed potatoes. We talked about it being fast food and how that’s all everyone seems to eat anymore and it’s a reason we have so much obesity and health problems in our country. Then I realized the workers in the restaurants and food places were working all the time too, but they were working making food, so why couldn’t they make the food the real way since that was their job anyway? She just smiled and said “you’ll never be able to do it, but good luck”. I’ve thought about it all day and it is a good question. Since we don’t have time to cook anymore and have to rely on our food being prepared in the restaurants by people whose job it is to cook our food, why aren’t they actually cooking the food with ingredients? Why are the restaurants serving us the instant, boxed, bagged, canned and frozen foods we could get in the grocery store and go home and microwave for ourselves?